# Should NY Subway Tracks \[be\] Clogged w/ Corpses of Rats who Touched the Third Rail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638 "2009-05-16T13:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Here\_Come\_Dots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cc9497/32.png) [@Here\_Come\_Dots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Here_Come_Dots)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/1 "2009-05-16T13:51:30Z")
The title says it all. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/2 "2009-05-16T14:18:27Z")
Not quite, because the title is missing a verb. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/3 "2009-05-16T14:28:58Z")
what? ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/4 "2009-05-16T14:31:54Z")
“Should New York Subway Tracks **Be** Clogged w/ Corpses of Rats who Touched the Third Rail?” is what I’m guessing it’s supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/5 "2009-05-16T15:00:13Z")
I for one am opposed to excessive amounts of rat corpses. However, I don’t live in NYC, so maybe they’re used to them already. But seriously, it might be something like birds on power lines. Unless a circuit is closed with their body, the won’t be harmed by the voltage. What constitutes a completed circuit on New York subways? Is it rail to rail through the train, or is there a connection above the train (like there are on my city’s MetroLink)? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/6 "2009-05-16T15:12:07Z")
I’m sure that plenty of rats die in NY subways every day. Their corpses decay just like one would expect, so the bodies don’t pile up. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/7 "2009-05-16T15:15:10Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Not quite, because the title is missing a verb. Lay off. He’s speaking E-Prime. (He accidentally 100 milliamps right across his heart.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/8 "2009-05-16T15:15:48Z")
Edited title to include verb. If the OP meant something else, please let us know. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/9 "2009-05-16T15:17:34Z")
I’m figuring the CHUDS eat them at night. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/10 "2009-05-16T17:06:46Z")
The albino alligators like fried rat. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/11 "2009-05-16T17:14:42Z")
I’m pretty sure the subway trains turn any dead rats on the tracks into railkill. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/12 "2009-05-16T17:18:09Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I for one am opposed to excessive amounts of rat corpses. However, I don’t live in NYC, so maybe they’re used to them already. > > But seriously, it might be something like birds on power lines. Unless a circuit is closed with their body, the won’t be harmed by the voltage. What constitutes a completed circuit on New York subways? Is it rail to rail through the train, or is there a connection above the train (like there are on my city’s MetroLink)? All you’d have to do is connect the rail to ground. The ground being, well, everything else nearby. Touch a bit of concrete, and the rail, and you’re fried. On the streetcars around here, the overhead wires provide the power, and the circuit is completed through the tracks, which are particularly well grounded. Nothing better than a large, continuous steel rail in contact with the ground to provide the return path for the circuit. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/13 "2009-05-16T18:27:27Z")
As I recall, the third rail is rather thick, and a few inches wide, so in many cases, ol’ rat would just jump up on it and run a way, and then jump off. Hence, no zapping. However, when doing either, if his tail managed to complete the circuit to the ground, then ZAP!!! ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/14 "2009-05-16T19:03:16Z")
Rats are pretty intelligent. It would not surprise me if avoiding the 3rd rail is a learned behavior passed down through generations of NYC rats. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/15 "2009-05-16T20:15:47Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I’m pretty sure the subway trains turn any dead rats on the tracks into railkill. The third rail is not directly adjacent to the two rails the trains run on, so that an electrocuted rat would often fall where it would not be pulverized. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/16 "2009-05-16T20:17:31Z")
Maybe they learn not to? Rats are smart. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/17 "2009-05-16T20:29:37Z")
> [@](#): > > All you’d have to do is connect the rail to ground. The ground being, well, everything else nearby. Touch a bit of concrete, and the rail, and you’re fried. Eh, concrete’s a pretty good insulator. A rat might get enough of a shock that way to decide that it’s a bad idea, but I rather doubt that it’s enough to kill it. The bigger problem would probably be the capacitance of the rat itself (some charge will flow into it in the process of bringing it to the same potential as the rail), but I wouldn’t expect that to be deadly, either. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/18 "2009-05-16T20:35:15Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I’m figuring the CHUDS eat them at night. CHUDS, Morlocks, Molemen. Circle of life. Hakuna matata. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/19 "2009-05-16T21:04:02Z")
Well in Chicago, I’ve seen rats run on the third rail. Also in Chicago at least, they clean the subways. I see them often picking up garbage and pigeons that have died. I don’t know how pigeons get into the subway but they do. I mean I don’t know if they walk down into them like people or from where the el trains go underground and become subways. I’m sure rats eat each other if they are dead. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638/20 "2009-05-16T21:10:43Z")
NYC subway (and commuter train) third-rails are all DC. The circuit is closed by the third rail connecting to the actual rails (preferably via a train’s propulsion system.) Will making a connection to ground also cause current to flow in that case, or is that only for AC currents? I never did understand how that whole “ground” thing worked anyway. Batteries and light bulbs in elementary school is as far as I got. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-ny-subway-tracks-be-clogged-w-corpses-of-rats-who-touched-the-third-rail/496638.md?page=2)